The photographer on board the Titan Sub was alarmed by the “knight” attitude of the OceanGate CEO

A photographer and camera operator who dived on the ill-fated Titan submarine with Stockton Rush was alarmed by the dismissive attitude of the OceanGate CEO.

Analog camera operator and photographer Brian Weed gave an interview in which he describes Rush as “blinded by his own arrogance” and despite a career spent in extreme environments, says being in the Titan submarine was the only time where he felt something was wrong.”

Weed was doing a TV show on the Discovery Channel called Shipment unknown when he made a test dive in the submarine Titan with Rush in Puget Sound, Washington, with the aim of visiting the sinking Titanic, but Weed ultimately withdrew from the mission due to safety concerns.

“Things didn’t go as planned on our test dive,” Weed says Insiders. “The whole dive made me very uncomfortable with the idea of ​​going down to the depths of the Titanic in that submersible.”

According to Weed, the thruster system malfunctioned during the test dive and the computers had to be recalibrated, as well as continued communication problems with the crew above water.

“You’re Dead Anyway”

Weed says he was startled by a conversation with Rush shortly after being stranded on Titan. The photographer asked Rush what would happen if the submersible had to make a sudden ascent in an emergency.

“[Rush] he says, “Well, there’s four or five days of oxygen on board,” and I said, “What if they don’t find you?” And he said, ‘Well, you’re dead anyway,'” Weed says Insiders.

“It almost seemed to be a nihilistic attitude to life and death in the middle of the ocean.”

Rush’s nonchalant demeanor made Weed feel uneasy, along with the fact that he could hear “knocks and creaks and bangs” during the launch procedure.

“We were thinking if it’s not going well, you know, we should go on a dive on the Titanic within the next couple of months. It looks like we’re not ready to go,” Weed says Insiders.

Canceling the dive

Weed says as soon as the test dive began, everything started going wrong, with the thruster system failing leaving them “sitting ducks” in the water.

According to Weed, they spent two hours going nowhere because they didn’t have the power to reach their goal in Puget Sound.

“The whole time I’m in the water locked in this [submersible] and thinking this should go to the Titanic in two months,” Weed says Insiders.

“We can’t go below 100 feet and this should go 12,000 feet under the ocean.”

Weed says Rush continually downplayed the issues and called him “very convincing” and someone you “want to trust.” But Weed didn’t trust him.

“He’s a great salesman. He’s busy. He fully believes in what he is doing. And he fully believes in his innovation and his technology and what he is capable of creating,” Weed said of Rush.

“Stockton believes in its own creation and innovation so much that it wasn’t even willing to consider that it might be wrong about something.”

Weed’s manufacturing company hired a US Navy consultant who raised concerns about Titan’s carbon fiber hull. After reading the report, Weed felt like he was playing “Russian roulette” because “there’s no way of knowing when he’s going to crack.”

On June 19, Weed saw headlines about the disappearance of the Titan submarine and immediately felt ill.

Underline a Insiders that he “never regretted” his choice not to go to Titan to visit the sinking of the Titanic.

Photographers and Titan

Weed isn’t the only cameraman talking about a tense experience with Rush and Titan on Wednesday Peta Pixels reported the story of Jaden Pan saying Rush suggested sleeping in the submarine after the battery went “kaput”.